Healthy Coexistence
by Kassel Garibay
Summary: One fateful night Bellamy receives Risk as a birthday present, so the Blakes and Clarke decide to host weekly game nights at their place. With Raven's fixation to prevent Octavia from cheating, Clarke and Lexa's competitive behaviors, Bellamy's Star Wars and History fun facts and Wells insisting on reading the whole instructions out loud, life-long friendships are lost. [Modern Au]
1. Risk

**Risk (or that time they thought they were over Settlers of Catan)**

"Wow, uh.. thanks Lexa!"  
Clarke and Octavia turn around to see each other, which only makes it harder to hold back the giggles at Bellamy's attempt to seem excited and Lexa's complete unawareness. "It will be really... useful." The last word cracks both the girls and they collapse on the couch, holding their stomachs as they laugh, already picturing Bellamy walking around in his new Darth Vader onesie. Still oblivious Lexa continues to beam at Bellamy. "I was going to get you something else but then I remembered how much you loved Star Trek and I had to buy it!" The offended look in both Bellamy's and Well's faces just makes the two girls fall back into a fit of laughter.  
After Bellamy sat Lexa down at the couch to give her_ the talk_ (I just... I can't begin to tell you how different they are, not that I don't like your gift, I love your gift, don't look at me that way, but honestly Lexa how can you not tell Spock from Vader?) they all gathered again around the table to continue opening Bellamy's birthday gifts. Octavia claps when he opens her gift (a coffeemaker, not like Bellamy drinks coffee they just needed one at the apartment, he just rolls his eyes and accepts the chocolates that came with it) and Wells just shrugs when Bellamy opens the badly-wrapped Barnes &amp; Noble Gift Card. Clarke's is the biggest, and Bellamy's eyes glimmer with a four-year-old excitement as he rips the wrapping (damn it Bell, I spent the whole afternoon wrapping that!).  
"Risk?"  
Clarke nods, excited. "I know how much you love Stratego and Battleship, but O is always complaining about how she doesn't get to play with us so I figured it was the closest thing to that that we could all play." Octavia cheers, raising both her arms and snatching the box from her brothers hand. "Let's play like right now."  
With Raven's voice as a background, complaining _again_ about no one appreciating her clever idea of mashing battleship boards together so they could all play (it definitely didn't work, Octavia kept peeking into Raven's board and Lexa just hates when people sink her ships) Bellamy and Octavia start setting the game for the six of them as Wells and Clarke go into the kitchen to fix some snacks for the game. "But... _Settlers of Catan_. Are you sure this is a good idea?" Wells asks Clarke as she finishes the last touches on Kane's super secret dip recipe.  
"Oh come on Wells, we all have to let that go already."

* * *

Apparently, the Blakes had worked up an alliance in advance, and were crushing the game, meanwhile Clarke and Wells fought over America. (Damn it Clarke you don't even like Disney movies, give it back!), Lexa had sheltered herself in Oceania as the Blakes took over the whole African and Eurasian continents.  
"Hey you don't have three capitals you only have two." Raven calls out.  
"I know that, Reyes. Now roll the dices already." The mechanic frowns and counts Octavia's pieces again before standing up, slamming both hands in the table, everyone holds their breath in fear of the board being messed up. "You are cheating Octavia!" She accuses, to which Octavia responds with a too-innocent "I'm not." Everyone knows she is, she always cheats in this games, in all games to be honest.  
The second they wiped Octavia off the map Raven turned around on Wells, breaking their alliance without a second thought as Octavia cursed under her breath and sulked in her chair, only raising her voice once in a while to ask if she could call Lincoln already.

* * *

Clarke now owned the whole American continent and she continued to attempt making her way into Asia through the Bering Strait, her attempts were always stopped by Bellamy. (You can't fight History, Griffin! It is my destiny to conquer America!) After a particularly gross battle Clarke couldn't help but to yell "Shut up Jaha!" at Bellamy, and the word 'destiny' was never uttered again. Not even Wells could defend his father on that one, he was kind of crazy when it came to predestination  
"What the hell, where did you get all this troops from?!" Bellamy blurts out when Lexa finally decides to unleash her wrath over the Asian continent, and after a strike of good luck the girl conquered China and Russia.  
Not willing to be vanquished, Bellamy retreats to Europe and wiped Raven off Africa in a few turns, who joins Octavia in the loser's corner, crossing her arms and calling Bellamy names whenever it is his turn.  
Not one of the remaining players is sitting down anymore, Bellamy is driving both the girls insane with his finger tapping and Octavia keeps complaining about Lexa's and Clarke's silent conversations. None of them attack Bellamy in their turn, instead they build up their armies and endure Bellamy's restless attempts to deplete their troops.  
"Blood must have blood!" They cry at the same time on Lexa's turn, and between that and Clarke's following turn Bellamy is thrown out of the picture. "I'm never letting you guys use my Netflix to binge watch Spartacus again, you get ideas..." The birthday boy pouts, tossing his last piece to the ground and joining the other losers in the couch.

* * *

It was well past midnight and Clarke and Lexa were still going at it. Raven and Wells had fallen asleep on the couch and Octavia insisted on Lexa letting her steal some of Clarke's pieces for her, but the self-proclaimed Commander was too proud to win other than truthfully.  
"Why don't y-"  
"Shut up, Blake."  
"But, Princess..."  
"Don't you Princess me Bellamy Blake! I will conquer India however I damn please!"  
Afterwards, in one magnificent war tactic that should be remembered for ages (as Bellamy would put it, not like Clarke would talk to him for days after that observation) Lexa weakens Clarke's borders and manages to conquer the world around three in the morning. It is the blonde's loud string of swearing that wakes up Raven and Wells.  
As Lexa dances around the table to a tribal tune that contains the words "Hissy Princess" and "Commander Awesome" Clarke crosses her arms and glares at the board filled with red pieces, the green plastic arrow in her hand hurting from how much she is clenching her fist.  
"I warned you it would be like Settlers of Catan..." Wells says sleepily, which only brings out a series of glares and accusations about stolen resources and undeserved victory points. Somewhere among the dispute the Risk game is brought up and it goes on until Lincoln walks into the apartment after his night shift with the cab, only then do the teenagers stop quarrelling about their "birthrights", "superior war techniques" and "historical inaccuracies".  
Lincoln dragged Octavia to their room and within minutes Lexa, Wells and Raven were out of the apartment with the later slamming the door behind her.  
The next morning when Clarke is using Bellamy's brand new coffeemaker for the first time she sees the brunette place the Risk box on the top shelf of the linens closet, right on top of Settlers of Catan. No one ever mentions them again.


	2. Monopoly

**Monopoly (or the second time they all got their asses killed**

Raven narrows her eyes at Octavia who just beams back at her, and both Clarke and Bellamy sigh, defeated. "Are you sure you didn't cheat, O?"Raven insists for the millionth time, but Clarke cuts her short. "How do you even cheat at Monopoly, Raven?"

Unable to respond to the blonde's question, the mechanic looks up to the sound of someone knocking on the door and Octavia hurries to open it, hoping that Raven will be distracted enough not to notice the amount of money she managed to steal from Clarke under the table. After opening the door to reveal Wells and Lexa, the Blake girl prances back to the living room and lets herself crash on the couch again as Raven starts to return the pieces of the game to the box.

"Hey guys, you won't believe what ju-" Wells said as they walked into the living room, but he was soon interrupted by the woman beside him. "I love Monopoly! Can we play?" Lexa chirps as she sits next to Raven on the carpet, and Wells, Wells just sits on the couch by Octavia's legs, pouting about his story on bird sighting going untold.

"Oh no, you don't want to play Monopoly with Lexa, you guys. Trust me, back in the dorms she used to wipe _everyone_ off in less than an hour." Octavia says, straightening herself on the couch as the other girl opens her mouth to protest, but she is interrupted by Bellamy who rolls his eyes and fixates his gaze on Lexa.

"I'll tell you what, we can play, _if _you tell me what fandom this Monopoly is from." He challenges, hiding the box behind his back.

After a short pause that makes Bellamy bring his hand to his nose bridge as he readies himself for another serious talk with his friend, she starts talking. "It's Staaaaaar..." Lexa looks around confused, reaching for a small R2D2 piece in the board and eying Clarke with a hidden plea in her eyes, the artists silently mouths to her the answer_. _"Wars! Star Wars!" Lexa exclaims excitedly afterwards.

"Clarke!" Bellamy protests, ready to give his girlfriend a rant about the importance of Lexa learning the difference between the two fandoms if she wants to remain friends with him, but when the blonde turns her back to look at him with one challenging eyebrow raised, the boy is thrown back to the long week after Risk in which she refused to talk to him and told him (through Octavia) to go discuss magnificent war tactics with Lexa each time he tried to apologize, so he shuts up and sulks in silence as Raven starts setting up the game again. During the debacle Octavia has managed to place the stolen money back on the box. No one notices (but Raven swears there was much less money when she last looked).

* * *

"Place the gameboard on a table, and put the Jedi and Sith cards face down on their allotted spaces on the board. Each player chooses one sid-" Wells sits with his legs crossed, reading the instructions out loud as both Raven and Octavia discuss in whispers if they could get away with ripping the instructions sheet in half without Bellamy killing them (they think they could easily handle Wells between the both of them.)

"Honestly, Wells... is it really necessary to _always _read the whole manual out loud?" Bellamy asked, annoyed.

"How do you expect us to play if we don't know the rules, huh?"

"It's Monopoly! Everybody knows how to play Monopoly! You buy shit, you lose shit, you try to buy shit from the same color of the shit you already have! You pay shit when you land in someone else's shit!" Octavia's comment makes Lexa chuckle, but Wells doesn't budge, if anything now he seems insulted. "You were obviously not paying attention, there are _differences _between this and classic Monopoly."

"Wells, why don't you just read the differences instead of the whole manual?" Clarke suggests, her face leaning on her palm as she boredly draws on a napkin, knowing Wells for as long as she does she knows he is going to read the instructions whether they like it or not.

"_Fine_." The boy sighs in defeat and flips the pages until he finds what he was looking for. "If you want to add some galactic excitement..."

* * *

"Can we order Chinese? I'm famished." Raven ask as Wells gives Lexa the money the Sith card told him to, clenching his jaw as he tries his best to be a "good loser" as Clarke says. Bellamy looks around to see the reaction of the group and when everyone nods he stands up to get the menu of the Chinese restaurant Jasper used to work at (not like he ever gave them any free noodles, the only thing he ever gifted to them were fortune cookies, which he failed to mention were already free, that bastard).

Sitting back on the carpet with the menu and his yellow legal pad (earning some scoffs from Octavia, of course), Bellamy readies himself to be bombarded with orders. After repeating the final order three times and changing details from Raven's order a thousand times (the girl just loves rice and noodles and has a hard time choosing okay?) he stands up to grab the phone as Octavia counts the money she managed to steal from Bellamy's stack of Monopoly Republic Credits while he was distracted writing down the list of vegetables that couldn't be in Wells' chow mein because of his allergies.

"I changed my mind Bell! Make it noodles!" Raven calls out some minutes later and a groan from Bellamy is heard from the other room as he dials again the number of the restaurant to change the order.

* * *

"I don't like to say 'I told you so', but I _definitely_ told you so." Octavia says, causing Bellamy to glare at her as she pulls out some of the stolen money from her jacket and adds it to her stack, she is definitely going to need it if Lexa continues playing like that.

Bellamy groans and looks at his depleted money stacks, between Lexa's amazing Monopoly skills and Octavia's stealing the boy is about to go bankrupt, and in a matter of three turns he does.

"I don't like to say 'I told you so' b-"

"Shut up O."

* * *

Without Bellamy's stack of money to help her (Raven distrusts her too much to let her money anywhere near her and she wouldn't ever risk trying to reach for Clarke's, the girl is touchy when it comes to board games, she has experienced it first hand when the last week she was forced to act messenger between her and her brother ) Octavia sees herself in difficulties, and barely survives because of a lucky double roll.

Clarke grits her teeth as she lays her last bill in Lexa's hand, not happy to see herself being beat by the girl again, but she tries to mask it chasing a small carrot in the Chinese takeout box . No one complains when four turns later Octavia sees herself land in one of Lexa's properties, and after a quick mental operation she realizes she'll go bankrupt if she pays, so she pretends to reach for Bellamy's spring rolls and flips the board with all its pieces.

"Oh oh." She says, pretending to be sorry while everyone pretends to be angry at her, saving their bankrupt asses from being kicked by Lexa.

"Now we all know how to cheat at Monopoly, though."

* * *

"But it's still early, though. How about we play again?" Lexa suggests innocently, causing all her friends to shoot panicked looks at each other until Clarke makes a suggestion with the sweetest voice she can muster.

"How about you play bank this time?"

* * *

(Later when Raven stuffs her hands in the pockets of the jacket Octavia lent to her she finds a handful of Monopoly Republic Credits and she curses under her breath, laughing.)


	3. Clue

**Clue (or that one time Wells tried to warn them but they didn't listen)**

Clarke turned the key on Bellamy's car ignition. The board game box on the passenger's seemed to stare at her as she drove back home with a focused look in her face. "Not tonight, Lexa. Not tonight." She thought to herself. (More like she repeated it out loud like a mantra all the way from her mother's house to her place.)

She had woken up early in the morning, slid from Bellamy's arms in the bed and stolen the keys to his beat-down pickup truck. Abby almost had a heart attack when her tornado-like daughter used the key underneath Kane's favorite flowerpot to let herself in. After her unsuccessful attempt not to wake them up, Clarke tried to ignore her mother's usual rant about going back into medical school as she went into her old room, retrieving the green box stacked in her closet. As a background noise, Kane begged the two stubborn women to sit down and have breakfast like a normal family, but to no use.

As the painter entered her apartment once again, she took a moment to smirk at herself before placing the green box in the stack of board games the friends had collected for their game nights to come. Making her way to the bedroom she took off her tennis shoes and joined Bellamy back in bed, the whole _Mission: Retrieve the Colonel_ (so what if she liked to name her endeavors as secret missions?) had been taken care of in her pajamas. "Your feet are cold, where the hell have you been?" He growled, starting to untangle his sleepy eyelashes.

Clarke kissed him before he started asking too many questions.

* * *

The green box fell on the table followed by her friends' hums of approval as they pictured the game night before them, but before Raven could open the game a horrified gasp stopped her. "Clarke _no_." Wells begged. "Not Clue, Clarke. _Please_ not Clue."

The blonde held Wells gaze, trying to remain unreadable as the group of friends attempted to make out some sense of the silent exchange between the old friends and the way Wells voiced his preoccupation. They tried to remember remember when was the last time the man had opposed in such a fervent fashion to something (three years ago, the roller coaster at Six Flags, Bellamy would never let him forget how he _almost_ (as Wells would put it) cried).

Bellamy's eyes bounced from the artist's to her best friend's before falling on the girls sitting together in the little couch, silently asking them how to proceed. Only a second later a devilish grin formed in Octavia's face and Clarke's shoulders relaxed, if she could count on someone to go against Wells' exact wishes that was the youngest Blake.

"Dibs on Miss Scarlett!" They yelled at the same time as Wells groaned into his hands.

With a triumphant smile, Clarke sat shuffling the cards of the game while the red token awaited for her in the table ("Game owner rights, O.") And with a groan the Blake girl snatched the Mrs. Peacock token from Lexa, who with a defeated look on her face placed Mrs. White's piece on its rightful place on the board.

"Why don't you like Clue buddy?" Raven asked Wells as she scattered the weapons in random rooms on the board.

"It's not that I didn't want to play Clue, Raven. I just didn't want to play Clue with _Clarke._" And the way the boy whispered the words, combined with the solemn ― almost too solemn ― way in which Clarke announced she was going to proceed to place the three cards on the envelope, made Raven think that perhaps, only perhaps, they had made a big mistake by allowing Clarke to pick the game this once.

"Well, fuck."

* * *

The cards disappeared in the yellow envelope and Raven's hands left Octavia's eyes. This time she was determined not to let her cheat.

"Next time you are going to cover my eyes wipe off the car grease of your fingers, Reyes. Now I look like Commander Crazy here that one time she tried to do cosplay."

Lexa opened her mouth to defend herself but he was interrupted by Bellamy laughing. "Like you are one to talk O. Because I remember a particularly fun occasion in which you cosplayed as the The Winter Soldier and y-"

"Shut up Professor Plum."

* * *

"I think it was M-"

"You _suggest_ it was." Wells corrected, earning himself (another) glare from Bellamy. But this time Clarke didn't side up with her boyfriend, instead nodding at Wells as she approved of his commitment to the game. Raven groaned as she was once again corrected by Wells and she repeated her sentence, deliberately saying 'think' all over again, and _stressing _it, much to Clarke and Wells dismay.

Lexa looked down to her cards to choose the one that would disprove Raven's suggestion, but in doing so Octavia took note of her too-trusting friend's card and wrote it down on her detective pad, a smug smile on her face until she realized it was her turn and her brother _had not yet moved from the damn library._

"For fucks sake Bellamy can you move your ass off the library, I _need _to get in there." Octavia wailed, exasperated at her stubborn brother blocking her way. "Oh, but I'm not Bellamy, am I dear Ms. Peacock? I'm Professor Plum and you will respect me."

(Only after his pictures on the Darth Vader onesie were threatened to be uploaded to facebook did he move.)

It was too late anyway, as Clarke scored the four she needed to make it into the Dining Room, in which she accused Revered Green of first grade murder with a candlestick. No amount of Wells' groaning could erase that shit-eating grin from the blonde's face.

* * *

A box of vegetables and bacon pizza ("I swear to you guys, being vegetarian is the best decision I've made in my life and you should all embrace it... but _dear goodness _is that Canadian bacon on the toppings list? Bell add that to the pizza." Bellamy rolled his eyes at his sister, but ordered it anyway and no one commented on how Octavia had lasted more as a vegetarian (a week and a half) than as a rockstar (three hours)) and six won games in a row later, Clarke still had the insufferable smile on her face and even her boyfriend, who usually looked at her as if she had hung the moon (or at the very least painted it) had started to grow tired of it.

Slowly the group of friends started to stare at Wells in the eyes and apologize in silence, and with every turn that passed by (in which the artist spoke in a pompous Sherlock-like voice) they started suggesting subtly to end the game night, but the blonde dismissed them swiftly.

"I have to work early tomorrow..."

"You have the damn wrench or not, Blake?"

"Woah, look at the time I'm sure..."

"Lexa just make your suggestion or let me into the observatory."

"I think th-"

"Less talk, more mystery solving, mister."

* * *

As the night turned into early morning, the Detective Notes of all the friends revealed more and more of their personalities: Wells' had boxes that could have been checked, but he had forgotten to do so (like that one time Raven showed him the wrench and he was too busy laughing at the irony); Raven's was full of random crosses, she had given up on notes halfway through the game, but when she spotted Octavia peering into her paper she had started crossing things at random, watching her friend's confusion grow which it turn; Lexa's was somewhere in the couch where she had installed herself after Clarke proved one of her accusations wrong for the third time in a row and she got tired of having the blonde kick her ass (isn't revenge just sweet?).

The artist's notes were fuller than anyone's, not only were the little boxes crossed neatly, but she kept track of who had shown which card to whom, which cards she had shown to whom and what her top suspects were. If only she could score enough on the dice to get to the Conservatory she would achieve her victory number ten...

But the dice fell one point short, almost mocking her, and she sighed, annoyed.

"My turn, princess." Bellamy said and tossed the dices. Once in the library the man spoke smugly. "I _accuse_ Miss Scarlett, in the Billiard Room, with the dagger." ("For the millionth time Blake, it's a _knife _just because you are a professor doesn't mean you have to talk like an asshole. And if you say _spanner _once more I swear I..." Raven snapped, rolling her eyes.)

Clarke blinked, she was still deciding between the Conservatory and the Billiard room, and Bellamy just _knew_?! She knew exactly what cards he held in his hand, it couldn't be possible.

Lexa reached for the envelope excitedly, fearing that the freckled man would be mistaken but hoping for the best case scenario in which they could all go home and call it a night (or an early morning).

"Bellamy wins." Lexa exclaimed, beaming, and the group cheered as Clarke's nine-wins-in-a-row-smoke-it-Lexa streak was broken. The blonde snatched the cards from Lexa's hand and stared at the Billiard Room card mocking her.

"But how did you... _how did you know_?" Clarke asked Bellamy, her eyes open like plates as her boyfriend beamed proudly. "I didn't."

With a smug smile on his face he showed her the completely empty Detective Notes pad. "I guessed."

"Uh-oh." Wells whispered and everyone had the sudden urge to flee the room and protect themselves, except Bellamy who innocently leaned forward for a victory kiss, but he was met with the artist's both hands pushing him on the chest.

"You don't just _guess _at Clue, Bellamy Blake! Where's your goddamn honor? This is a _serious _game and you can't just wing it. _Shame on you Blake."_

It would have been terribly hilarious (well, it _was _hilarious) had he not experienced firsthand just a few weeks ago how personal Clarke took all board games.

Lexa, Raven and Wells murmured their goodbyes and escaped the apartment, leaving the Blakes to the fulminating glare of the blonde. "And I swear to Picasso, Octavia. If you ever peer on my Detective Notes ever again it's going to be _your_ embarrassing photos that end up online."

(Three days later Bellamy changes his Facebook profile picture to one of himself wearing the Darth Vader onesie and holding a "Forgive me?" sign. Clarke finds it too adorable to remain mad at him and lets him come back to bed, besides he was starting to ruin the couch.)


End file.
